Return to democracy in Venezuela depends on protecting the life and freedom of Corina Machado

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The imminent defeat of Venezuela’s dictatorship has started with the primaries of the real opposition who, by 92.35% of the votes, elected Maria Corina Machado as a presidential candidate. Twenty-First Century Socialism, however, under the command of Cuba whose satellite is Venezuela, continues persecuting, imprisoning, and assassinating those who can win the elections, as evidenced by the imprisonments and uprooting in Nicaragua and Bolivia, and the assassinations of Osvaldo Paya in Cuba, of Fernando Villavicencio in Ecuador, and more. The return of democracy to Venezuela depends on the freedom and life of Maria Corina Machado.The enemy of freedom and democracy in Venezuela is 21st Century Socialism, or Castrochavism, a Transnational Criminal Organization that, under the command of Cuba’s dictatorship, has expanded 20th century Castroism’s power and system through the actions taken by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez who -starting in 1999- with Venezuela’s moneys and oil started salvaging the Cuban dictatorship that was agonizing in its “special period.” With and by Chavez’s death, the Cuban dictatorship took the control from Venezuela, turning the wealthiest country in Latin America into a narco-State as miserable as Cuba.

The regime that wields power in Venezuela is a 21st Century Socialism’s dictatorship, a satellite of Cuba, that by its wealth and geopolitical position is the main platform for the expansion of the Transnational Criminal Organization that controls Nicaragua and Bolivia’s dictatorships and influences the Para-Dictatorial governments of; Lopez Obrador in Mexico, Fernandez/Kirchner in Argentina, Petro in Colombia, Lula in Brazil, and intermittently Boric in Chile.

Twenty-First Century Socialism’s dictatorships have turned Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua into narco-States. Venezuela is one of the main narco-States, identified by its involvement with the “Los Soles Cartel” of which Nicolas Maduro the dictator, head of the narco-State, and head of government, is accused and sought by justice with a bounty of $15 Million Dollars as reward for his capture.

Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello wield power through “State-terrorism” defined as “the utilization of illegitimate means (crimes) by the government, which are aimed at producing fear or terror amongst the civilian population in order to reach its objectives or foster behaviors that would -otherwise- not occur by themselves.” By these means, in Venezuela’s dictatorship, as well as Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia’s dictatorships, in a uniform and systematic manner, there are political prisoners and exiles, torture, judicialized persecution, and justice is manipulated as an instrument of terror.

Venezuela’s situation is aggravated by an investigation before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, for the exile of nearly 7 million Venezuelans, for the kidnapping of foreign citizens, for extortion, and for being the main platform for Russia, China, and Iran’s dictatorships’ penetration into the region.

Venezuela has the most solid “functional opposition” that I define as “the simulation of opposing a regime or government when, in reality, there is cooperation for its existence or legitimation through the falsification of inexistent conditions of democracy or legality, in exchange for benefits or perks.” The functional opposition is a fake opposition, it is a crime in exchange for corruption to the detriment of freedom, human rights, and peoples’ democracy. In these latter years the Venezuelan functional opposition has allowed -in exchange for corruption- the permanence of the dictatorship to the point of even causing the failure of international support to recover democracy.

The popular disdain for the dictatorial regime in Venezuela exceeds 80% and, under these conditions, the only way Venezuela’s dictatorship has to continue wielding power in the government, is to interrupt the electoral process that Maria Corina Machado is wining. The greatest risk is for Venezuela’s Castrochavist dictatorship to either directly or indirectly, through official means or through hit-men, with the apparatus for the repression of State-terrorism or with the involvement of the Forum of Sao Paolo or narcotics traffickers’ involvement to attempt against the freedom or the life of the candidate that is winning the elections.

To falsely accuse the victims for the crimes committed by the dictatorship, to utilize prosecutors and judges as executioners, to manipulate court proceedings as lynchings, to imprison opposition members for decades while extorting money and depriving their families of their wealth, are habitual practices of 21st Century Socialism’s dictatorships. There is ample proof as in the history of Bolivia since the 2003 coup d’état, the electoral/criminal process of Nicaragua in 2021 and more.

Twenty-First Century Socialism kills. This was proven by the assassination of Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero, certified by the International Commission of Human Rights, the mysterious death of Alberto Nisman in Argentina, the recent assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Ecuador, the death of General Isaias Baduel at the hands of the Venezuelan dictatorship, the assassination of Manta’s Mayor Agustin Intriago in Ecuador, plus hundreds of individual cases and the dozens of bloody massacres perpetrated in this century in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua.

With this factual reality, the international system cannot ignore that the return of democracy to Venezuela hinges on protecting the freedom and the life of Maria Corina Machado.

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas